The Act specifically prohibits discrimination in various ways when renting property to tenants. The ways in which you cannot discriminate when you are renting property to tenants are on the basis of:

• Race
• Marital status
• Religious belief
• Family status
• Colour
• Gender
• Ancestry
• Physical disability
• Place of origin
• Mental disability
• Source of income
• Sexual orientation.

You cannot, for example, reject an application for a tenancy on the basis that a person’s income is from social assistance, that they are homosexual, or that they are not married. The only permitted ground of discrimination in relation to a tenancy is age, which is defined as 18 or over. If you rejected a tenancy application from a 19-year-old on the basis that the applicant was too young for a building that was for people over 21 only — that would not be a valid ground for complaint. Be sure, however, that if you do reject an application for the reason of age, that it is the real reason and your real reason is not based upon something like race or sexual orientation. The 19-year-old is not able to make a complaint about being discriminated against on the basis of age, but can still complain about discrimination on other grounds. 

Discrimination in the ways described above is prohibited with regard to any aspect of renting property, not just accepting and rejecting tenant applications. For example, it is generally not permissible to forbid those with physical disability from using a swimming pool in the building. Some exceptions to the rules are recognized, for example, an action is not discriminatory if it can be shown to be reasonable and justifiable in the circumstances. It will be up to you as a landlord, however, to prove that an action was reasonable and justified if a complaint is made against you. In the above example, you would have to prove why it was not reasonable or justified for you to provide facilities for those with physical disability to use the pool.

Anyone who feels they have been discriminated against under the Human Rights law can get advice or file a complaint to the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission. Complaints have to be filed within twelve months from the time of the alleged incident. If both sides agree, a human rights officer will then work to try and resolve the issue by conciliation. If a resolution cannot be achieved in this way, the complaint is investigated and if the complaint is found to be valid, recommendations to settle the complaint are made. Recommendations try to put the person discriminated against in the position they would have been in if the discrimination had not happened. Examples include the payment of money for pain and suffering, letter of apology, education program for the person who discriminated, or compensation for wages.

A complaint can also be dismissed if it is found not to be valid.

If a complaint cannot be resolved by either of the voluntary methods, it can proceed to a hearing of the Human Rights Panel. Panel decisions can be appealed to the Court of Queen’s Bench.

The Alberta Human Rights Commission carries extensive educational materials and operates workshops. For more information see http://www.albertahumanrights.ab.ca/.

May 2006